Since I just changed my cell phone plan to something that actually lets me talk a little more, I got to talk to Laren while I was out today. It was nice, since I hadn't gotten to talk to her in a really long time, and it was really refreshing to just hear her voice.

Later on I was listening to some music, and a Faspitch song came on. Faspitch is this rock band from the Philippines that Laren is/was really into, and so I always associate them with her and with Wichita. And I got to thinking, I associate a *lot* of music with Laren. Without her introduction, I might never have heard of The Dresden Dolls, or Asian Kung-Fu Generation, or Hum. Or obviously, Faspitch. I definitely wouldn't have heard of DJ Sharpnel. And if it weren't for her, I probably wouldn't have more than a passing interest in The Smashing Pumpkins. And there are specific songs that remind me a lot of her, like "Deutschland" by Die Prinzen and "Fuck The Pain Away" by Peaches, and "El Papichulo" by La Factoria, and the Dynamite Hack version of "Boyz N Tha Hood"... I don't even know where she found most of these.

That's not to mention that she's the one who introduced me to DDR, so without her I never would have heard of BeForU, Riyu Kosaka, Noria, dj TAKA, Naoki... I probably wouldn't listen to any techno/trance at all. (I never would've gotten involved with beat+WINGS. D: Or bemanistyle.) It's so strange. I associate lots of songs with certain people, but "songs I associate with and/or got from Laren" make up like half of my music library.

Then I got to thinking about the time leading up to Laren's departure, and Sid. I miss Sid, a lot, still. And I'm worried some day I'm going to forget all the cute things he did, and how much I loved him. How he would run laps around his cage at 8 AM for seemingly no reason. How much he loved the front lawn. How much he loved watermelon, and romaine lettuce. How he would bang on his water bottle when he wanted attention, and the crazy wheeking noises he made. How soft his hair was, and how sometimes he'd let me put my face close and kind of snuggle him. Then I think about how he wouldn't eat, not even watermelon, and force-feeding him with mom holding him down, and how lethargic and unhappy he was. And how I wasn't there when he died. And I still feel so terrible. That I did the best I could and it wasn't enough to save him. Maybe if I had noticed his illness sooner, I don't know. I had to wake Chris up for hugs because I couldn't stop thinking about it, and it was making me cry.

It sucks, because honestly, today was a good day. Chris and I went out to a deli with awesome food, we ate lunch in the park, and the weather was great and I looked cute and we had a lot of fun. Things have been getting a lot better with Chris, it seems like his issues are improving, and he's been actually looking for work. And I've been very, very happy about that.

I just wish Sid had made it here with me, and gotten to meet Chris, and see (tiny bits of) New York.

._.

In my last entry I mentioned that a former member of BeForU and I were CONVERSING OVER MYSPACE OMG. I'm not totally convinced that it was actually her speaking to me (as opposed to someone from her PR team), but the MySpace itself was definitely legit.

Anyway, the people over at beat+wings (my favorite forum ever) have made a lot of awesome discoveries, and we have actually gotten in contact with her "people," from a PR team known as A-Cube. A-Cube, as it turns out, is managing PR for more than one former member of BeForU. They have a website, COVER GIRLS, with profiles for Nao Komatsu (formerly Yoma), AYA -絢- (formerly Miharu Arisawa), and ALiCE (formerly Lisa Sotohana).

The three of them are working on solo projects, and thus far AYA has come the farthest, with her new band Pinkbeatz. Pinkbeatz has an album coming out later this month, titled "SUPER VIRGIN", and AYA is the only one of the three to have a MySpace profile at this point. The Pinkbeatz MySpace can be viewed here, and it has a number of song previews from the new album. AYA has a truly remarkable voice -- If you play IIDX you may recognize her voice from Miharu Arisawa's "I am", and if you play other bemani, you may recognize her voice from some of the BeForU tracks. Pinkbeatz is more rock-oriented than BeForU, and I recommend checking out her MySpace if you have any interest in rock or pop music whatsoever, she's just that awesome. My personal favorites are "ticket to the WONDERLAND" and "Lovely GAME", so I would particularly recommend those.

I'm incredibly excited. At this point every old member of BeForU is accounted for, except for the long-lost Shiyuna and the newly-lost Sayaka. Who knows, Sayaka will probably resurface at some point too.

In other news, the new BeForU is apparently releasing a new single in September -- a cover of Denki Groove's "Shangri-La". Original version can be heard here. This is going to be... interesting. But I think they can pull it off!

I am going to make this my only public entry because COVER GIRLS deserve the promotion.